The present invention relates to tile spacers. More particularly, it relates to tile spacers used for locating tiles in an evenly spaced-apart manner before the tiles are secured to a surface, so that the grout lines are even and regular.
Tiles are manufactured in differing shapes, sizes and thicknesses. The arrangement of tiles is often a matter of individual taste, artistic interpretation and ability.
The most common and readily available tile spacers in general hardware stores and specialty tile supply outlets are illustrated by numeral 10 in FIG. 1. The tile spacers 10 have either a cross-shape configuration 12 or a T-shaped configuration 14 configuration. The tile spacers 10 suffer a disadvantage in that they are often left within the grout. This results in the tile spacers 10 not being reused, which is thus more wasteful and expensive for a user. In the alternative, the tile spacers 10 are removed, but with great difficulty.
Moreover, the tile spacers 10 of the prior art are restricted to tiles requiring square or brick patterns when laid flat at tile intersection points during the installation process. Accordingly, the tile spacers 10 have significant limitations in terms of the variety of tile patterns with which they can function.
In order to be used in different configurations, the spacers in FIG. 1 can be inserted with ends 13 in first. This however significantly increases the number of spacers required per installation as two spacers are required per edge.
International Patent Application Number PCT/GB2006/000132 to Skillings illustrates a tile spacer that enables the setting of a variety of tile patterns. However, Skillings suffers a number of disadvantages including being unable to provide spacing for all corner configurations.
Also, the tile spacers of prior art such as that described by Skillings may touch and obstruct visibility of the front face of the tile. As a result, these tile spacers are shaped such that adhesive build up is difficult if not impossible at times to identify.
Excessive adhesive tends to hide in tile corner areas. This causes further difficulty for the installer in identifying excess adhesive or adhesive that transfers or squeezes up on to the surface of the tile. This is an even more significant problem if the tile has a porous nature, such as clay tile, terracotta tile, natural stone tile, and satin finished tile. Moreover, such adhesive is difficult if not impossible to clean up under the area of this type tile spacer.
Accordingly, there is a need for a tile spacer that overcomes the above disadvantages.
A further drawback of the prior art concerns the ability to provide the user with a ready supply of adhesives, tools, tiles spacers, and cleaning equipment. Traditional tiles spacers are provided in plastic bags. Often piles of materials are staged at certain locations for ready access. These bags will move with the user either in their pocket or hands. However, when sitting, kneeling or crouching during typical floor tiling operations, this is cumbersome, tying up the hands. The interiors of the pockets are also extremely frustrating to access. This is particularly true if the user has gloves with the gloved hand picking up a small piece of plastic from a flat surface or from a deep pocket. Also, staging piles of tile spacers or bags in a general location results in tile spacers quickly becoming out of reach. This is especially true in vertical wall tiling operations.